i CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 23 



which he could write when he was blindfolded. Thus, 

 his eyes being covered, a board would be placed, for 

 still further assurance, between himself and his hands 

 which were holding the slate and pencil. He would 

 then be told to write from dictation, and after he had 

 finished a pretty long sentence, which he had written 

 in perfectly straight lines just as if he had seen the 

 slate, he was told to go back and dot his "i's" and 

 cross his " t's " : this also he did with precision. These 

 phenomena are similar to those which have been since 

 more carefully investigated by Charcot and others ; 

 but the attempt to apply the hypnotic condition (of the 

 existence of which there can be no doubt) to the cure 

 of disease does not seem to have made much progress. 

 With regard to the above powers I would remark 

 may it not be possible that just as the invisible 

 Rontgen rays pass through a deal board, and by 

 means of a fluorescent screen render visible the 

 key under the board, so in the same way some, as 

 yet unknown, emanation accompanying light passes 

 through the board and affects the eye of the hypnotised 

 patient, whose nervous system, as we know, has been 

 rendered exquisitely sensitive ? 



